


Skipping Rope

by Drowned_in_Feels



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 11 and amy are only friends here but if you want to you can see them in a relationship, 11 loves rope skipping, 12 only appears in the last paragraph, Feels, Friendship, Gen, it gets a bit emotional towards the end, rope skipping, rory is mentioned once, that wasn't really intended but it just happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 04:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4550463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drowned_in_Feels/pseuds/Drowned_in_Feels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor finds his old skipping rope and decides that Amy and him should skip the rope for fun. It does not end the way he expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skipping Rope

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language! I apologise for every grammar, spelling or punctuation mistake I might have made!  
> The main part of this fic is set during series 5, the small paragraph after that during series 6, the next one during The Time of the Doctor and the last one during series 8 but I think that's all quite obvious when you read it.

“Amy!”, the Doctor shouted, “Look what I found!” Out of breath, he collapsed onto the console of the TARDIS, next to which Amy was sitting. She looked up from the book she was reading to see what the Doctor had found. He stood and beaming showed her what he held in his hand. He smiled wider than Amy had ever seen anybody smile. His eyes were shining with pure delight and Amy felt that the Doctor's happiness was contagious for she caught herself smiling as well. He showed her what he had found: an old and slightly damaged skipping rope.  
“Wow”, Amy said, still smiling, “a skipping rope. Am I supposed to be impressed?”  
“Yes!”, the Doctor stated, “yes, you are, Pond! And I'm telling you why” He made an important face, as if he was about to explain why unicorns went into extinction.  
“This”, he clarified, “isn't just any old skipping rope you can find in your neighbour's garage. This is my skipping rope. My personal rope from my childhood on Gallifrey. I skipped this rope before I called myself The Doctor, before I had even looked into the Untempered Schism. Do you understand now the importance of this rope?”  
Yes, Amy did. She grabbed it from the Doctor's hand and observed it more carefully. Every tiniest hint from his childhood was worth an elaborate examination. She didn't know what she was looking for exactly. Clues on the Doctors' former life, before she met him? Clues on why he always behaved the way he did?  
Whatever it was that she was searching for, she didn't find it. “It's just an ordinary rope”, she whispered.  
“Of course it is,” the Doctor said, looking at her as if she was stupid, “What did you expect? Magical powers?”  
“But it's from Gallifrey!”  
“Yes, it's from Gallifrey”, he acknowledged, “but we Time Lords didn't waste our time putting high technology in children's toys. No one needs a rope that is bigger on the inside. Everything a skipping rope needs to do is to let itself be skipped and that's what it does. Although it would be cool if it could produce custard.” There was his constantly joking self again. He looked at the rope in Amy's hands as if he expected it to spew out food at one end.   
When it became obvious that the rope was not going to do such a thing, the Doctor snapped it back from Amy and stroked it. “I've lost this centuries ago!”, he declared, then he whispered towards the rope: “I'm so glad to have you back”  
“Do you two want to be alone?”  
“No, Pond, don't be ridiculous! You know what we're going to do?”  
She raised an eyebrow questioningly.  
The Doctor clapped his hands. “We are going to find out who's better at rope skipping.”  
Amy shook her head no, still smiling about the Doctor's childishness. “Definitely not.”  
“Come on, Pond, it's going to be fun!”  
“I have an even better idea: you'll skip the rope and I'll watch you”  
He gave her a grumpy look but didn't argue with her any further. “Then you'll better watch closely because in former times, no one could beat me at rope skipping.” There was his big Doctor-ish smile again. “If I wanted to be modest, I'd say that I wasn't the best but that'd be lying, so pay attention!”  
He took the rope, tried to make a serious face and cleared his throat. “Ladies and Gentlemen! Prepare to be mind-blown! You're about to witness the coolest rope skipping event in the universe!”  
Amy tried hard not to laugh. The Doctor looked into her eyes with all seriousness he could gather. “Geronimo.” Then he made the first jump. Then he tripped and almost fell to the floor. Amy couldn't keep herself together any longer. She laughed until her stomach hurt and there were too many tears in her eyes to blink them away. She looked at the Doctor who was not amused.  
“I just need to get myself warmed up, OK?”  
She nodded. Then the Doctor tried again. This time, he didn't fail. He jumped. And jumped and jumped and jumped. He counted out loud. “106. 107.108.”  
Amy watched. “345. 346. 347.”  
And she watched. “578. 579. 580. 581.”   
And she watched. “726. 727. 728.”   
When the Doctor reached 800, Amy got up and searched for her jumper because it was getting cold next to the console. When she returned, the Doctor hit 990. She decided that it was enough. “What's that on your shoulder?” It worked. The Doctor turned his head and tripped.  
“Amy!”, he complained, “I was about to accomplish 1000!”  
“Yes, I know. You've been jumping for ages. Aren't you exhausted?”  
The Doctor patted his chest. “Two hearts. I could have gone on for hours.”  
Amy rolled her eyes. The Doctor smiled. “Now it's your turn” He offered her the rope.  
“No way.”  
“Oh, come on, Pond! Just give it a try! It's such fun!”  
“I said no, Doctor.”  
He forced the rope into her hands. “Please. Do it for me.”  
“I don't want to.”  
It went on like this for ages. Finally, Amy gave in. “I'm going to regret this.”  
She inhaled deeply. Then, she jumped. And fell. Amy hit the floor face first and groaned.  
The Doctor was by her side immediately. “Are you alright?”  
“Yes. Yes, I'm fine.” She sat up and looked at him-  
“Good.” The Doctor sat back, relieved, and smiled. “You want to have another try?”  
“No, I don't”  
“Are you sure? Maybe you just need to get a bit warmed -”  
“Yes, I am sure, Doctor”, she snapped.  
Then there was a short silence, which the Doctor interrupted by laughing. “I never imagined, Pond couldn't do rope skipping”  
“Please, don't”, Amy whispered but the Doctor didn't hear her. “Basically everyone can. It's not that hard. You just jump over a rope!” He laughed again.  
“Don't”, Amy said, louder this time. The Doctor looked at her. She had tears in her eyes. He was confused.  
“What did I do?”  
She sniffled. “It's OK. I'm fine. It's just ...” Her voice broke. “When I was little, we had to do rope skipping in P.E. And I sucked at it completely. I did not manage once to skip the rope, I always fell, no matter how often or how hard I tried. Everyone made fun of me. For months.”  
“Because you couldn't do rope skipping?”  
“Yes. You now what children are like.”  
“Those little Daleks. And nobody was on your side?”  
“Rory was.” Amy smiled and wiped away her tears. “Anyway, that's the reason why I haven't touched a skipping rope in years.”  
The Doctor looked at his knees. “I'm sorry I made you do it.”  
Then he hustled away, the rope in his hands. Amy returned to her book although she couldn't focus on the words. That was the first and the last time she ever saw the Doctor's old skipping rope.

 

Amy and Rory were asleep in their room. The Doctor was in his room. He had never told his companions that he had a room. It was where he kept all the cool stuff from his earlier adventures he didn't want anybody else to see, it was very crowded in there.  
He sat on the bed, in his hands he held his old skipping rope. While caressing it, he thought of the day he had found it, he thought of Amy Pond. Then he got up and jumped, skipped the rope to 1000 and beyond, the way he had been doing every night since he found it. He couldn't give up this activity that was so much fun to him. He just wished he could share his fun. But he knew he couldn't do that to Amy. Couldn't have her bad memories flash back to her. Again.

 

There was a knock on his door. The Doctor looked out of the window. It was dark outside. He wondered what anybody could want from him at this hour. Then he remembered that it was only afternoon, he sometimes forgot that the sun never came out for long in Christmas.  
He answered the door, it was a little boy with his face red from the cold, in his hands he held a torn skipping rope. “I am sorry to disturb you, Mister, but my friend says you can fix anything” He held up the rope to the Doctor, a begging expression on his face.  
The Doctor didn't move, he stared at the rope blankly. “Pond”, he murmured.  
“Sorry, Mister, what did you say?”  
The Doctor stared at the boy as if he had forgotten why he was standing there. “I said I'm sorry but I can't fix this.” He gestured toward the torn rope. “I was never able to fix this.”  
Then he closed the door. He felt guilty because he had just been rude to a small boy but then again he couldn't bear being remembered of Amy any longer.  
Of course, he could fix torn ropes but he couldn't fix the past.

 

Years later, the Doctor found himself in a room in his TARDIS he hadn't visited in a long time. It was filled to the ceiling with stuff from his previous self.   
He ruffled through his now grey hair despairingly. Where to begin? He sat down on the bed and started searching through the boxes, looking at old photographs, identifying certain parts of alien technology, trying on various kinds of hats. Then he noticed one end of something oddly familiar sticking out from underneath a pile of boxes. He pulled and in his hands, he found his old skipping rope.   
He hadn't seen nor touched this rope since … well, since Manhattan. All the memories came flashing back. The Doctor wiped a tear away. “Pond”, he whispered. Then a weird thought came to his mind. Could he still …?   
The Doctor got up and prepared himself. He made a jump, it went well. Then he made another and tripped. Luckily, he fell onto the bed. He stared at the rope, then he made a decision.  
The Doctor walked to the console room. He opened the door. It was wonderful outside. He had always enjoyed watching the universe just passing by, looking at the stars. He threw his old skipping rope, one of the last physical memories of his home, outside and closed the door. If the rope had never been any good to Amy, it sure wouldn't be any good to him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so, so much for reading!   
> This has been my first work but I had this headcanon that 11 loved rope skipping and then this happened and I thought I could share it. Please leave a comment telling me what you think, I'd appreciate every kind of feedback. :)


End file.
